Weather warnings have been issued for North East England ahead of the arrival of the first of two Atlantic storms.

The first low pressure weather system is expected to bring wind speeds of 70mph plus to northern areas of the United Kingdom stretching into Friday.

A lull will follow, before the second storm hits in the early hours of Saturday, bringing heavy rain, snow and ice with it through until Sunday lunchtime.

This morning, the Met Office issued two yellow weather warnings for the region.

The first runs from 10pm tonight until 10am tomorrow and warns of high winds, with gusts of 70mph predicted.

The Met Office state: “The public should be aware of the potential for disruption, for example to transport and power supplies.”

The second warning is for snow and ice, running from 6am on Saturday until noon on Sunday.

It also states: “Temperatures will fall significantly during Saturday, this also posing the risk of ice where showers occur. The public should be aware of the risk of some difficult driving conditions.”

The storms are being created by a particularly strong jet stream, which will reach a Friday peak of more than 250mph across the North East Atlantic, heading in the direction of the UK.

Leon Brown is a meteorologist at The Weather Channel UK.

Looking forward, he said: “Next week remains very windy, with the north returning to squally and wintry showers.

“Everywhere will be a lot colder on Tuesday, with sleet and hill snow showers as far south as Wales and South West England.

“We will then be watching the track of another deep low pressure system from the middle of next week that threatens more gales or severe gales as it moves eastwards.”